Syrian rebels warned the government that they could strike "anywhere and
anytime" on Wednesday after they exposed the vulnerability of its
security apparatus with a string of unprecedented attacks on military
targets around Damascus.

Syrian army defectors attacked an intelligence complex on the edge of Damascus early on Wednesday, in the first reported assault on a major security facility in the eight-month uprising against President Bashar al-AssadPhoto: REUTERS

The Free Syrian Army, an increasingly potent rebel outfit led by defecting military officers, easily penetrated the Assad regime's supposedly ironclad defences around the capital to launch raids on at least three security checkpoints on its outskirts.

But in a far more bruising blow that will chill the government, it also launched a three-pronged assault on Syria's air force intelligence directorate in the north of Damascus, a powerful, feared and widely hated symbol of the regime's once over-arching authority.

The rebels reportedly attacked the compound with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. Residents living nearby said they heard numerous explosions and the sound of army helicopters in the air above the complex.

The directorate is seen as a vital part of the Syrian security apparatus and has been at the heart of its bloody repression of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, which the UN says has claimed more than 3,500 lives since it erupted in March.

It is accused both of overseeing the shooting of unarmed protesters in and around Damascus and of imprisoning and torturing thousands more.

There is an added symbolism too: Hafez al-Assad, the president's father and predecessor, commanded the air force before he came to power in a coup in 1968, a fact that makes the directorate even more loathed in the eyes of regime opponents.

Although they did not give any details on casualties arising from the attacks, the rebels boasted that Wednesday's action showed they could extend their reach anywhere in the country.

"The Free Syrian Army carried out special operations in all Damascus areas to foil a plan being prepared by the regime against our people and to send a message to the regime that the Free Syrian Army can hit anywhere and anytime," the group said in a statement.

Coming a day after an insurgent attack on army base in southern Syria allegedly killed 34 soldiers, Wednesday's strikes suggested that the Free Syrian Army, founded in July and based in Turkey, is increasingly capable of mounting a full-scale armed insurrection.

"We are seeing more of these kind of operations by the armed elements of the opposition," Simon Collis, Britain's ambassador to Damascus, was quoted as saying. "This is a new and emerging factor of what's happening.

"If the reports turns out to be accurate it is the most high-profile incident of its kind. But it is not the first one. It is part of an emerging pattern."

Increasingly beset by the growing strength of the armed insurgency against his rule, Mr Assad was also forced to face the growing contempt of his former Arab allies amid a concerted attempt to isolate him in the region.

Foreign ministers of the Arab League met on Wednesday in the Moroccan capital Rabat to confirm their decision to suspend Syria's membership after Mr Assad failed to heed their demands to end a campaign of state violence against protesters.

The bloc, which has surprised many by its robust response to the deteriorating crisis in Syria, is expected to carry out its threat to impose sanctions against Mr Assad's government in the coming weeks.

Arab ministers warned the Syrian president that he faced serious consequences for his refusal to abide by a regional peace plan that called for an end to the violence and the withdrawal of the army from the country's increasingly blood-soaked streets.

"What has happened in Syria is very sad for all of us," said Qatar's foreign minister, Hamad bin Jassim, who leads the league's committee on Syria. "We cannot accept that people are being killed in the way they are now. We are moving to stop the flow of blood." Turkish officials were even more robust in their condemnation.

"We denounce the mass murder of the Syrian people," Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, told his colleagues. "It is the responsibility of all of us to end the bloodshed in Syria." Although Syria has moved to meet some of its pledges to the Arab League, notably by releasing 1,000 of the 70,000 political prisoners said to be in itsÂ custody, more than 200 people have been killed in the country since Mr Assad gave his backing to the bloc's plan a fortnight ago.

The league's determination to punish the Syrian leader has only grown after a number of Arab embassies in Damascus were attacked by pro-government protesters in the wake of its decision on Saturday to suspend Syria.

Despite apologies from the government, the missions of the United Arab Emirates and Morocco were both attacked again on Wednesday by stone throwing protesters as the security forces, so assiduous when confronting opponents of the regime, stood by.

Following in the lead of the United States, which withdrew its ambassador three weeks ago, France recalled its envoy.

What action the Arab League might take remains unclear, although it is possible that Syria will be referred to the UN Security Council, a move that would increase pressure on Russia and China to drop their opposition to a resolution threatening sanctions against Mr Assad's government.